The Gladiator

26/12/2024

26/12/2024

Old Girl is finally back in the water! Still a bit of work to do, keen as 🙌

31/10/2023

Boat is having a 10yr Birthday, back on the water floating. Just new electronics to go.
Motors,Anti foul all done ✅
Keen to get back out and do some quality boating!

15/11/2021

BATHURST NOV21’

Headed over to North Arm first thing Saturday morning. Wind was a little fresh and it took us a extra hour to get there. Not two concerned as we had time before the turn of tide.
Got to the first spot and didn’t have to look around two much as the Sounder screen was lit up. No skills needed, drop the anchor and hang on. Got our Bag Limit of Jew very quickly and had a feeling it was going to be a good day.
Tim did the honours of filleting the fish straight away as we trolled up to a spot not too far away. Took a fillet of the smallest Jew and put it in a Numas mix for a snack. Thanks David Pritchard-Davies for the inspiration 👍
Was awesome and was gobbled up within minutes.
Next spot we got 10 Good size Golden Snapper within 30min. Called lines in as we Hadn’t got to the “Good Spot yet..”
luckily we were in around 10m of water and the smaller ones went back with ease. Played a game of Arm Chair Hero, rules are. Rod must be in rod holder, not allowed to grab it unless 100% have a fish. If not, full can. Biggest fish wins.
Hugh Harbeck the tangle kid got into a bit of strife so Lewis gave him a hand to redo his line. Whilst doing so, Lewis line bent over and Hugh did the honours of winding it in for him. He wasn’t happy as the photo shows..
Geoff Radford got one of the Biggest Cods the boat has seen and was a hell of a fight. We thought he had another Goldie on and we’re giving him s**t for being a weakling.. let alone a huge cod came over the side 😂

Fishing was done by 5pm. Bag limit reached for the 2 Species so changed attack. Burleyed up and put a floater out to try for a Big Mac. One hit on sundown but it headed for us, slack line and pinged us…
Nothing left to do but fillet the fish have a feed and a few beers, have a wash and play Charades. Tim got us good, did very well for a bloke who hadn’t played before….

In bed by 10pm which is early on a fishing trip as we are normally still fishing. Weather dropped off so as the lads slept I cruised back south towards the pelagic grounds for the morning. Bed by one, Storm came over 4am. Enough to pull us off anchor. I was amazed that when I woke to sort it out Lewis Christensen and Tim were all over the screens seeing what was going on.
Anchor up to see al the prongs had been straightened. Lewis manned up and went up front in 2m waves while raining and reset the anchor prongs. Massive effort. Once anchored again, stopped raining 🤦‍♂️

All up buy 7. Headed in shallow hoping Tim could sn**ch us some Painted Crayfish. Got all suited up only with the water being too dirty from the storms..
Next time for sure.

Wind was blowing its t**s off by now and we made the call to head home as we couldn’t fish anyway and there wasn’t one bird in the sky at the Maccy grounds. Geoff wanted to have a swim and a wash, get changed and freshen up in his best Linen for the trip home. Lewis after his Stella effort took the day off helping out as “He deserved it for saving our lives..” Started the day with a bottle of rum. Within 5min of heading into the now decent SE winds Lewis proceeded to tip his whole fresh glass of Rum and Pineapple all over Geoff and his favourite TShirt…
5.5hrs to get home, which flew buy as we all had a few beers and told a few yarns with Lewis in the background keeping us entertained as well.

Awesome trip, new blokes did very well and everyone pulled there weight.

Made it home, 10 fingers 10 toes which is all I aim for.
Will post a couple vids below.
Marty

01/11/2021

Took advantage of the good weather and headed out. Was bloody hot in the mid morning.
Did it tough with eventually getting a triple hook up on some Jew.
Couple short vids in the comments

03/10/2020

Haven’t been able to get out much this year. Forgot to share this trip from a while back. Near perfect conditions.
Got some stomper Goldie’s with 4 being over 80cm.

Video of big cod below

09/09/2019

First time over to Bathurst Island in a while.

The weather was looking like it would play the game so the text messages from a few keen blokes started coming thru..
The tides looked good for the first day but was slowing down dramatically for the night and next morning.
I have never fished over there on such a Neap before. Was sceptical, but keen for a look all the same.

Headed over Saturday arvo with awesome wind conditions, we arrived in time for the bottom of the tide at a popular Jew Fish spot.
Four other boats were there all hoping for a swag of Jew.
From what we could see, they all got the same as us... nothing!
Plenty of Red Fish, but none of what we were targeting.

For the incoming we tried a few spots heading up the west cost.

We’re lucky to snag a few Goldie’s early but as the tide slowed down to under 1m for the next two movements.. it became a desert.
Nothing, not even a shark 😳

Goldie’s didn’t come on as usual in a small window, more stretched out but bigger fish.

Did the usual trawl in the morning, with the change of conditions brought a different fish than we normally get.
Mac Tuna.
Not a Trev,Skinny or Spanish in sight😳

Headed home in a slight SE wind which became more bearable as we got on the gas, the Kevlacat eating up the chop.

17/05/2019

Another amazing trip.

Headed out as the sun was dropping into decent chop.
Once on the spot Mathew Vitucci thought he had hooked the bottom only to be corrected via long time friend Stephen Gazzola shouting “Fish!Fish!”

We knew we were in for a big night..
All of us had a good workout retrieving these magnificent fish.

05/05/2019

DUNDEE MAY 2019

For the long weekend we decided to head out to Dundee and meet up with two other oats from the Pirates Rugby Club...

First night was very rough with storms all around us. With speed as slow as 11kn it was a long way around.

Still managed a heap of Goldie’s and a Jew off Fish reef to break up the journey.

Made it to Sail City off Dundee at 10:30pm
With a mechanical failure of the winch we were F@cked in 35m+ of water with a massive anchor and 10m of chain.
Massive swell and white caps all around, we were committed.
Picked a spot and were done with it for the night...
Picked a good one luckily with Saddle Tail snapper, SM Nanny’s, Red Emperor and the odd Golden and Tricky Snapper coming over the side.

Couldn’t sleep as it was too rough.
Morning was the same.Headed back to Darwin over some good ground and had a few drifts before meeting The Boonga Barge around the Witches Nose.
Anchored up and got onto a heap more fish of the same with a good Cod and a Coral Trout thrown in.
Lads jumped on for a couple of beers before we had a troll session witch resulted in a MAC Tuna on free troll with bird spotting not eventful as they were spooked easily.

Weather cleared and the eskys were full.
Found a spot to anchor and cleaned up,had a feed of the fish we caught.

Weather still and water nice and flat made the executive decision to head home.
Smashed it home to Cullen bay cruising at 30kn+ it was a pleasant ride home compared to the 24hrs before. For me anyway as I was the only one awake.

At the Lock by 1am.
Moored up and had a sleep before coming thru at 7am lock.
Boat washed, crew feed and fish divided and bagged up by 9am.

Hard going but a good result from the lads.

👍

02/06/2017

Pulling in his third one for the night, you will have to forgive his little carry ons 😃.

02/06/2017

After being sick all week and still feeling a bit dusty, the conditions were just too good to pass up on a sneaky arvo trip.
Slow start but once the sun went down and the tide started moving it was on.

Lost a few straight up to the wreck and the sharks have is the s**ts as well. Once they moved on we were in the clear.

4 Rods, same bait, same boat and only one prick caught the lot...

Bloody Shaun Ley...

23/04/2017

So after a week of being undecided of weather to go for a trip over to North Arm, I succumb to per group pressure and assembled the crew.

The plan was to head out in the AM to beat the breeze and hit some spots on the way.

Conditions were superb to go with great company which led to story time and relaxation which in turn led to missing spots and turning 3hrs of steaming feel like 20min.

Once at the grounds a short sweep over and we dropped the pic.
Half way thru our first beer 50lb braid was getting pealed off the reels by big Jew.

Once the bite stopped we headed up stream to look for Gold.

Since conditions were good we threw out some big deep divers resulting in 15kg+ Spanyids.
These big boys screamed with the mono showing on the spool on both fish.

Goldies weren't playing the game at first resulting in 2 moves to avoid the Sharknado storm..

After bagging out on Gold we headed a bit wider to land several other reef fish including Rock Cog, flag and Small Mouth Nanis.

Night time now, decided to hit the Jew spot as was directly on way back.

Not long there, bag limit reached it was time to clean the fish and head home.

Was a awesome trip with everything lining up and working out perfect.

Very proud of the boys, fished well and most importantly we made it home safe and sound.

17/04/2017

Went out the other night, couldn't stop the monsters of the deep...

Did terrible

Lost 6 landed one big one 130cm+

Will get them next time

10/11/2016

Battled the swell and headed out to Frenchy's Secret Spot. Landed 4,Biggest being 145cm. Dropped 3. Young fella will have the bug for sure now after out fishing his Dad Craig Mitchel. Also was one hell of a Deckie knocking someone off the list for sure ;-)

31/10/2016

Instead of hitting the usual haunts around the Tiwi's, I thought I'd try to the West around the Peron Islands to get some different species over the side.

Leaving Friday morning 8am we headed around Charles point West towards the Peron's stopping along the way to break up the 3hr steam.
First stop was Roach Reef where Stevo got on to a good Goldie and there were Cod and Flagies galore.
Next stop was point Blaze for endless supply of Tricky Snapper and a mix of other reef fish.

Once behind the Peron's on Bateman shoal we anchored for the night.

On the way home we had a bit of a trawl and managed Mac's and different types of Trevally. The Trevally were that thick on the sounder it was only a matter of dropping down a chromie with a fast retrieve for a hook up.
Had 3 Tuna on but lost them.... Rusty hooks were the blame ;-)

Over all we were after a range of species,and we pretty much got them.

Golden Snapper,Tricky Snapper,Lg mouth Nanagi,Sm Mouth Nanagi,Coral Trout,Red Emperor,Parrot fish,Spanish Flag,Moonies(Bat Fish),Reef Shark,Lemon Shark,Golden,Brass,Spotted Trevally,Mackrell and even a Stargazer and Puffer fish :-)
I'm sure I left some out also.

Headed home lunch time Saturday arvo whilst Stephen Gazzola and Robbo Brens N Wayne Robinson had the massive task of filleting the fish. They did well.

Good trip, will only get better once we know the ground a bit better.

The lads did well, they make it look easy but it is hard work.

Marty